So, what is all of this about, anyway?
What is UTAU, you may ask?
UTAU [pronounced oo-tah-oo] is a vocal synthesizer program created by Ameya that is much like the ever-so-popular Vocaloid, different in that the software is free and allows one to use it to create his/her own singing character.
How does this UTAU program work?
Essentially, how it works is you record each sound that you want your UTAU to be able to make, then tell the program which recordings to use, what sound is recorded in each, and where the parts of the sound are (consonant, vowel, etc.). Then you use the UTAU program to open up a .ust file, which is essentially the skeleton of the song, containing the words, notes, volume, pitches, and so on. Tell the program which voice to use, make a few tweaks to make the song sound nice, and you're on your way already! There's a lot more to it than that, of course, but those are the basics.
Why do all of these UTAU videos have strange symbols instead of letters?
The reason that there is a lot of Japanese in the community is simply that a vast majority of existing UTAU characters are Japanese because UTAU, the program, was made in Japan. Most UTAUs sing in Japanese primarily for the reason that Japanese, with its limited number of syllables, is the easiest to create a full voicebank for, as opposed to English, which has ways upon ways to pronounce each vowel and consonant. Fans of UTAU also tend to like anime shows, which are most popular in Japan, and thus, many are inclined towards Japanese drawing and song styles. There are plenty of UTAU that can sing in languages besides Japanese, and many more are being released nowadays, but Japanese still continues to be the most prevalent language in the UTAU community.
How do I get this program?
Here is a great tutorial on Youtube which shows you step-by-step how to download the UTAU program and here is another great tutorial showing how to get your UTAU program translated into English. As of the 4.0 installments you no longer need an English patch but still need to properly follow the old steps for installing.
That's all well and good, but what is UTAU Soundscape?
UTAU Soundscape is a group of UTAUloids made by Shinami, Chihaya, Cola and Canary. This group consists of entirely Overseas users, which essentially means that none of the members are from Japan. See our "mission" on the home page.
Feel free to visit the UTAU wiki or contact us for more information.
(Written by Cola, Edited by Shinami)